Grace Van Dahl
Grace Van Dahl was a supporting character in Season 2 of Gotham. She appeared during the Wrath of the Villains arc as the wife of Elijah Van Dahl, the biological father of Oswald Cobblepot. She was portrayed by Melinda Clarke. History Years before the events of the series begin, Grace was a poor woman working as a waitress in a diner. She and her children, Sasha and Charles, endured a life of abuse from her husband while she struggled to make ends meet. She would later meet Elijah Van Dahl who became a regular customer at her diner and the two would later fall in love and marry. Afterwards, Grace and her children moved into Elijah's family home where they lived a life of luxury. Over time, Elijah fell into poor health and rarely left the house, and so Grace would care for him. Years later, Elijah would have a chance encounter with Oswald Cobblepot, his biological son and true heir. Having recently been released from Arkham Asylum, Oswald had nowhere to go, but Elijah welcomed him into his home and introduced him to his family. Grace pretended to welcome Oswald, but felt threatened by his presence. Since Oswald was Elijah's true heir, Grace feared that Elijah would leave his fortune to the newcomer and that she would be forced back into poverty. She plotted with her children on how to get rid of Oswald. After learning that Oswald was the notorious crime lord known as the Penguin, she warned Elijah, but Oswald had already told Elijah about his dark past and had been forgiven. Forced to take more drastic action, Grace later replaced Elijah's heart medication with breath mints and poisoned a decanter of sherry. One night, Elijah drank the tainted sherry and died before amending his will. With Elijah gone, Grace and her children inherited everything and Grace decided to throw Oswald out. However, Oswald convinced her to change her mind and she let him stay as an unpaid servant. During this time, Grace and her children frequently bullied Oswald, insulting his cooking and his mother and threw their table scraps at him for amusement. Death In the episode "Into the Woods", Oswald discovered the decanter of poisoned sherry in a cupboard, realising that Grace had killed his father. This revelation coupled with the abuse he received from the Van Dahls broke Hugo Strange's conditioning, causing Oswald to revert back to his sinister, criminal self. In a twisted act of revenge, Oswald killed Charles and Sasha, cooking them and serving them up as a roast dinner to Grace. When Oswald revealed that he knew what she had done to Elijah, Grace called out for her children, only for Oswald to laugh and reveal that she had been eating them. Oswald then killed the horrified Grace by stabbing her with a carving knife. After killing Grace, Penguin didn't even bother disposing of her remains. Her corpse remained in her chair at the dining table for some time and Penguin would even cut off her head and leave it on the table as a grotesque centerpiece. Category:TV Characters Category:TV Deaths Category:Supporting Characters Category:Villains Category:Humans Category:Gotham Category:Violent Deaths Category:Murder Victims Category:Killers Category:Stabbed to Death